Impact of Face Masks on Acoustic Measures in Patients with Hyperfunctional Voice Disorders and Normal Speakers

Purpose: Wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a very important hygiene measure to block or prevent respiratory droplets and infections. The purpose of this study is explore effect wearing on acoustical measurement voice speech in patients with hyperfunctional disorders, present guidelines for mask when evaluating speech.Methods: A total 20 disorders who diagnosed vocal nodules, muscle tension dysphonia, adductor spasmodic dysphonia (14 females, 6 males, age=30.55±8.24) age-and gender-matched healthy adults (15 5 age=27.31±7.52) were enrolled. All participants completed three tasks (sustained /a/vowel, CAPEV-3 all voiced sentence, ‘Kaeul’ standard passage- 2nd sentence) their habitual pitch loudness among different conditions (No mask, surgical, KF94). Acoustic analysis including perturbation cepstral & spectral parameters was conducted MDVP ADSV.Results: For speakers, there significantly lower jitter (%), shimmer noise-to-harmonic (NHR) no condition than conditions, while measures (F0, NHR patients. Vocal intensity reduced mask-wearing either surgical KF94 except sustained /a/ vowel phonation Cepstral peak prominence (CPP) not 3rd CAPEV sentence (all groups. Both speakers showed L/H ratio values condition.Conclusions: Overall, current study, type did change time-based acoustic parameters, such as increased disorders. These findings suggest that KF 94 could be safe relevant choice dysphonia.